Prime minister makes another coronavirus U-turn days before return to classrooms
Pupils in England will no longer be advised against using face masks in secondary schools after Boris Johnson made an 11th-hour U-turn days before classrooms reopen.
In lockdown areas such as Greater Manchester, which have greater restrictions to stop the spread of the virus, wearing face coverings will become mandatory in school corridors where social distancing is more difficult.
Continue reading...Achievement comes following Nigeria vaccination drive, with last cases of wild virus recorded four years ago
Africa is expected to be declared free from wild polio, after decades of work by a coalition of international health bodies, national and local governments, community volunteers and survivors.
Four years after the last recorded cases of wild polio in northern Nigeria, the Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) is expected to certify that the continent is free of the virus, which can cause irreversible paralysis and in some cases death.
Continue reading...A devoted mother and transport worker, Mujinga was confronted by an angry passenger as Covid-19 swept the UK in March. Her death made headlines and raised pressing questions about race, abuse and workers’ rights
It is maybe three metres from the concourse in Victoria station to the ticket office. As Belly Mujinga ran, she would have been scared. It was 21 March, a Saturday, late in the morning. Victoria was a ghost of its former self. Hardly anyone was around to see Belly as she dashed for the ticket office, her breath shaky and uncontrolled, her hand reaching out to wipe the spittle from her face.
There are facts in the story of Belly – and there is a version of events that is disputed. Then there is the symbol that Belly has become to so many people – people who never met her or heard the sound of her voice, but who know her name and the story of what happened to her in those fear-filled days at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain.
Continue reading...As Covid-19 tore through aged care homes during Victoria’s second wave, state and federal governments attempted to shift blame for the rising death toll. Political editor Katharine Murphy examines what has happened and who has ultimate responsibility
Continue reading...While a cure-all drug or therapy is a long way off, there have been some breakthroughs
Many different drugs and therapies are being trialled and used on patients with Covid-19. There are some positive results, which may be beginning to bring the hospital death toll down, but there is still a long way to go towards something that will cure all comers. These are some of the most promising.
Continue reading...AstraZeneca insists it has not discussed ‘emergency use authorisation’ with the US
The company manufacturing the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine has said it is not in talks with the Trump administration about fast-tracking its vaccine for emergency use ahead of November’s presidential elections.
With both Russia and China pressing ahead with inoculations involving experimental vaccines yet to pass final efficacy and safety trials, the Trump administration has become increasingly frustrated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which the president has tried to suggest is slowing approval of a vaccine for “political reasons”.
Continue reading...Brisbane watches hotspots after youth detention centre outbreak, Victoria’s hotel inquiry continues and politicians gather in Canberra for the first time in 10 weeks. Follow today’s latest updates
Virtual parliament has so far gone off without a hitch.
Malcolm Roberts has been spotted on a screen - which means that no, he is not in Canberra. No sighting of Pauline Hanson either.
"I'm very proud to be the first senator to be using our remote facilities as the chamber finally enters the 21st century."
Greens Senator @larissawaters @SBSNews #auspol pic.twitter.com/XSV41x91WQ
The ACT has reported no new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours.
Continue reading...Dr Dominic Pimenta resigned from his cardiology post after Boris Johnson’s chief advisor made his controversial car journey. Was it the right decision?
On 24 May, a couple of days after it was revealed that Dominic Cummings had travelled to Durham during the lockdown, a British cardiologist, Dr Dominic Pimenta, published a tweet in which he threatened to resign if Cummings did not. For Pimenta, news of Cummings’s trip had landed like a blow. In March, he had been drafted on to a Covid-19 intensive care unit, where he had witnessed suffering and death, struggle and recovery: “This sheer volume of human capacity that had been devoted to trying to save lives.” His tweet came at the end of a terrible weekend of intensive care shifts, during which he had watched patients die, their loved ones absent, and he had given everything of himself and seen colleagues do the same. And now this? “If we are going to be asked to risk our lives,” he wrote later, “the least we can expect is to be treated like people.”
Pimenta’s tweet was widely shared. By the following morning he’d become a national news story, and he was invited by the media to share more of what he wanted to say: how he hoped that by making a stand he might highlight the recent sacrifices of healthcare workers while reassuring the public that their own sacrifices had not been in vain, that the lockdown was saving lives, that they must maintain faith in it. Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s former chief medical officer, had recently resigned for a minor lockdown transgression. Pimenta wanted Cummings to do the same, or to at least acknowledge how irresponsible he’d been. “It was an act of principle,” Pimenta says. “And the principle was: this isn’t acceptable, I will not accept it. All I ever wanted was for the government to underline the importance of the lockdown.”
Continue reading...Some say the young are flouting the rules, others doubt the statistics. Most are anxious about what a lockdown will bring
If news that Birmingham was facing a local lockdown troubled drinkers around the Gas Street basin on Thursday afternoon, they were determined to forget it.
“This is the first time I’ve got dressed up and come to town,” said Pam, who didn’t want to give her full name, as she fluffed her pink hair. “I know what’s going on, I’ve worked in Covid wards. I’m not worried being here, but it does feel weird.”
Continue reading...Prof Mark Walport says regular vaccinations are likely to be required to control coronavirus
Coronavirus will be around “for ever” and people are likely to need regular vaccinations against it, a former chief scientific adviser to the UK government has said.
Prof Mark Walport, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), likened the virus to influenza, as he said repeat inoculations on a global scale would almost certainly be required to control it.
Continue reading...A letter from an ancestor who worked as a nurse in Sydney during the Spanish flu reaffirms what we know about societal responsibility and protecting others
Does history repeat? Ask an ancestor.
I was in hotel quarantine when I discovered a letter written in 1919 by my great-aunt Jean about her work as a voluntary aide during Australia’s Spanish flu outbreak.
Continue reading...Serco and Sitel paid more than £200m to test and trace but reach just over half of infected people’s contacts
Outsourcing companies running the government’s flagship test-and-trace system have failed to reach nearly half of potentially exposed people in areas with the highest Covid infections rates in England, official figures show.
In the country’s 20 worst-hit areas, Serco and Sitel – paid £200m between them – reached only 54% of people who had been in close proximity to an infected person, meaning more than 21,000 exposed people were not contacted.
Continue reading...Serco and Sitel paid £200m to test and trace, but reach just over half of infected people’s contacts in some regions
Outsourcing companies leading the government’s flagship test-and-trace system have failed to reach nearly half of potentially exposed people in areas with the highest Covid infection rates in England, official figures show.
In the country’s 20 worst-hit areas, Serco and Sitel – paid £200m between them – reached only 54% of people who had been in close proximity to an infected person, meaning more than 21,000 exposed people were not contacted.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Cramped work and home conditions may be behind infections in factories, says expert
Britain’s demand for cheap food could be fuelling the spread of the coronavirus in factories, a leading health expert has warned, as analysis shows nearly 1,500 cases across the UK.
Cramped conditions in some factories and in low-paid workers’ homes, spurred by the UK’s desire for cheaply produced food, may have driven infection rates in the sector, according to David Nabarro, a World Health Organization special envoy on Covid-19.
Continue reading...A Sage member and NHS England have pushed back against criticism of hospital admissions data
Claims that hospital admissions for Covid-19 in England were overreported at the peak of the outbreak may not be telling the whole story.
According to government figures, the daily hospital admissions for Covid-19 patients in hospital rose from 1,541 on 3 March to 17,172 on 12 April. On 20 August the figure was 516.
Continue reading...Ruling is result of lawsuit filed over deaths in childbirth of two women due to staff negligence and lack of facilities
Health rights activists in Uganda have welcomed a landmark court ruling that the government should increase its health budget to ensure women receive decent maternal healthcare services.
The ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed in 2011 over the deaths in childbirth of two women – Jennifer Anguko and Sylvia Nalubowa – in a public health facility.
Continue reading...US companies make roughly 663m syringes a year but the Trump administration has calculated that an extra 850m may be needed
As the race for a vaccine against the coronavirus heats up, the US faces another potential crisis: a shortage of syringes.
The US federal government has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars in hopes of warding off a syringe shortage, if and when a Covid-19 vaccine is approved. It comes as shortages of personal protective equipment continue to hamper the response to the pandemic.
Continue reading...Richard Colbeck apologises for federal government’s role in aged care outbreaks but denies it was ‘absent’
Scott Morrison has declared he still has confidence in his aged care minister after Richard Colbeck came under pressure at a Senate inquiry and was unable to recall how many people had died in aged care during the pandemic.
Colbeck apologised on Friday for the times when the Morrison government “didn’t get everything right” in dealing with aged care outbreaks – but insisted it had been prepared for what it sincerely believed to be the worst-case scenarios.
Continue reading...Lowest rise in Victorian cases in five weeks comes ahead of national cabinet. Follow live updates today
Andrews thanked all Victorians for the role they played in getting the daily coronavirus numbers down below 100.
I’d simply say that, whilst tomorrow’s numbers will be for tomorrow, we are all pleased to see a ‘1’ in front of these additional case numbers, and to a certain extent it is perhaps at that level a little quicker than I thought it might be.
Of course, this Sunday marks the three weeks since the curfew was imposed. Next Wednesday marks three weeks since the most significant workplace restrictions came into effect. To be at this point shows that the strategy is working....
I want to thank each and after Victorian who is making a big contribution to this strategy working. I want to thank them and their families. I want to thank people from all backgrounds, from all parts of the state. No matter your perspective, this is a challenge that none of us are immune from. We’re all in this together. We say that a lot, but it’s true. It’s absolutely true. And because I think more and more Victorians are making the best choices and looking out foreach other, and therefore everybody, we are seeing these numbers come down.
We’ll see what tomorrow holds. But there’s no room for complacency, there’s no way we can assume that this is over. It is an ultra-marathon, and we’re not halfway yet.
The Victorian and federal governments have set up a $15m joint disability response centre, which Andrews said is “essentially mirroring the arrangements we have in aged care”.
There are currently 62 active Covid-19 cases in disability care sectors, across 60 different sites.
We’re grateful to them. That’s not easy. But with that payment, that’ll mean that we can support them to, in turn, keep their clients safe. We all know that, in that sector, that’s what they’re motivated to do – to provide the best care and support to their clients.
Again, I thank the prime minister and the federal government for their partnership. This is yet another example of us working together to deal with a common challenge. And it’s really important that, given the vulnerability of many people across these settings, it’s very, very important that we have a singular focus, and all the senior people around the table at the same time, and that funding to be able to limit the amount of workers who are going to multiple sites.
Continue reading...City sees ‘extremely concerning’ rise to 30 cases per 100,000 as positive tests in Britain hit highest level since mid-June
Police and officials in Birmingham have warned the public to act now to avert a city-wide lockdown as the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England rose 27% in a week, hitting its highest level since mid-June.
The UK’s second city, which has a population of more than 1 million, has seen a rise to 30 cases per 100,000 up from 22.4 the week before and 12 at the start of the month, its director of public health said.
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